Monthly Archives: December 2015

2015: A Year in Books

Posted on December 30, 2015 by

Last year I posted a bright year-end reading blog, talking about how I fail at all New Year’s resolutions, except for reading. “It was a cool year,” I wrote, “with rich reading from beginning to end.” I had set a 2014 … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

My 2015 Annual Report

Posted on December 29, 2015 by

Once again the good folks at WordPress.com have created an annual report. Many thanks to the great readers, commentators, guest bloggers, and fellow blogmates who make my work with A Pilgrim in Narnia so rewarding. Watch over the next week … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | 2 Comments

The Inside is Bigger than the Outside: A Christmas Thought from Narnia for Our World Too

Posted on December 25, 2015 by

“Always winter and never Christmas.” This is the condition where we first discover Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. It is not so much blanketed in white as smothered in it, frozen by it. Anyone in my … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Memorable Quotes, Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

Love Lessons from “Love Actually”

Posted on December 23, 2015 by

I did not grow up with the spiritual significance of Christmas in my home, so Christmas was about three things: food, toys, and Christmas movies. I am still a little traumatized by a stop-action drummer boy in my childhood memory, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Eucatastrophe: J.R.R Tolkien & C.S. Lewis’s Magic Formula for Hope by Tim Willard

Posted on December 21, 2015 by

What is it we feel when the eagles swoop in during the final moments of the battle of the five armies in  Do our emotions reveal the true depth of the fantasy genre that has captured the hearts of pop-culture? … Continue reading →

Posted in Guest Blogs, Original Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

O Radix, A Third Advent Reflection and Sonnet

Posted on December 19, 2015 by

Originally posted on Malcolm Guite:
https://lanciaesmith.com/image-for-the-day-advent/ The third Advent antiphon,in?my Advent Anthology from?Canterbury Press?Waiting on the Word,? O Radix, calls on Christ as the root, an image I find particularly compelling and helpful. The collect is referring to the image…

Posted in Reflections | 2 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ Curmudgeonly Essay

Posted on December 16, 2015 by

If you were to judge only from the pieces he published in December 1957, you would assume that C.S. Lewis was a classic case, get-off-my-lawn, wide-jawed, beslippered, well aged, first class curmudgeon. In 1955, he had published a clever piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Lewis Biography, Lewis' Essays, Memorable Quotes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

The Dickieson Family Christmas Tree

Posted on December 14, 2015 by

Our family has just never been very good at Christmas trees. And it’s my fault. It sounds simple, I know. From Remembrance Day to Christmas Eve parking lots are filled with the lingering scents of pine and spruce. Why is … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

On Telling People’s Stories: Thoughts with Abigail Santamaria on “Joy”

Posted on December 10, 2015 by

I have just finished reading a biography on the life of a minor American poet who had an affair with her professor and bullied her way through her first editorial job. She was a radical Marxist who used her film … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

A Lament for the Loss of Young Teachers

Posted on December 8, 2015 by

Last week I wrote a post about the problems of the lack of women in academic publishing, using my favourite publisher, Zondervan, as a test case for the conversation. Senior editor Katya Covrett responded, setting the problem of academic publishing … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Original Research, Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments